There’s a reason why we all like stories and people with lots of stories to tell. In today’s edition of Morning Rush, we’re sharing our conversation with someone full of great stories. Abhijeet Mukherjee is an entrepreneur and writer who talks about creator economy, productivity, and businesses. He is also the founder of Guiding Tech, which acquired by a US-based firm. Abhijeet was its sole founder who bootstrapped, grew, and managed it for ten years before selling it.

This conversation was all about nostalgia, and we got chatting about early internet days, blogging, and how things have transformed now. Sounds like an interesting chat, isn't it? Well, let dive right into it. 👇🏼

Thousand Faces Club: You quit your job for blogging! What gave you the confidence to make money out of it back then?

Abhijeet: Irrespective of the content format, there weren't many who were monetising their content — it's a fairly new phenomenon. Globally too, those who were making a sustainable income from content were doing it as a side gig. I connected with many content creators who were predominantly in the tech sector; they were making money from blogging and didn't quit their jobs. But I worked at a call centre with brutal work hours so I didn't have the luxury to blog on the side. Since, I realised this is what I wanted to do and thought: if not now, then now? While there were financial challenges and responsibilities, I thought if blogging wasn't working out, I could go back to my job.

Thousand Faces Club: Do you remember the first time you made money on the internet?

Abhijeet: Yeah, digitally it was quite quick! On quitting my job, I started a blog called 'jeetblog', where I published productivity hacks for Firefox and similar stuff. The first article went so viral that my site crashed. Although I was fully prepared for the influx of traffic, I didn’t expect such a massive traffic. Within a month, I was making money through Adsense, but it wasn't close to what I was earning. Eventually, I decided I had to try other things to monetise, and everything fell into place. 💪

Thousand Faces Club: The concept of a newsletter didn't exist when you started blogging. So, how did you garner a readership for your blog?

Abhijeet: I didn't know newsletters were great for building an audience when I got started. But when you float a business, you'd want your users to revisit your content or product. The intent and moment are two significant features for growing your business. I realised for the content we were building, people may not set aside time to consume it. So I focussed more on the presentation and UI to leave an impression on readers. We also relied on a growing user base and traffic from Google. Although we reached a loyal user base, we didn't grow massively like other businesses because our content was niche and specific.

Abhijeet’s Journey In His Words

Thousand Faces Club: What are your top tips for creators?

Abhijeet: Create content consistently. Start creating on the side, and see if you're consistent for 3-4 months. If it works, create more, and identify a platform to create that content. The returns for content comes much later so, if you're not enjoying the process of creating, it may not be for you. Figure out ways to reach more people. Content maybe the king, but marketing is the queen that runs the house. No matter how good your content is, you'll have to look for ways to promote, collaborate, and network to get your content seen. If you can afford, you can try out paid marketing too. Also, there's no point in doing stuff that doesn't rake in traffic, so engage with other creators and learn from them. While content creation is one aspect, understanding how to market it and doing different things are also crucial.

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